I will try to make this quick. My father and I both have the same name, except my parents added the Jr. suffix to my official title. My father does not use a suffix. Neither of us have middle names. My father filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2016 after he became permanently disabled. In May 2018, Equifax reports to have received notification of a bankruptcy and has mistakenly applied the Public Record to my credit report as well.
Now is where the fun begins.
I file a dispute with Equifax in 2018 after the bankruptcy appears on my credit report. They close the dispute and have determined that the bankruptcy has been correctly assigned to my report. Oh Jesus, here we go.
I call Equifax again and I'm told that the Jr. suffix does not exist in their records and I will need to send correspondence with an official cover letter and pertinent official documents (Birth Cert, SS card, License, Utility Bill, etc.) asking them to add the official Jr. suffix that is on ALL of my documents since birth.
After a week, I call Equifax again. They claim that my address on the fax that I sent them was illegible and they cannot complete the request. Great, now I need to re-do all of this because their printer is out of toner.
Equifax also tells me on this phonecall that they can see the bankruptcy is filed under my father and has also been applied to my credit report. But the woman I spoke with cannot do anything about it other than file another dispute, which she doesn't review, and will not disclose to me who reviews it. She advised me to contact the United States Bankruptcy Court to obtain a letter stating that the bankruptcy is my father's and not mine.
So I call. They don't provide, and have never provided, such a letter to anyone. I am then advised to enter the court records and purchase copies of anything that could maybe help me.
I am currently writing 2 cover letters. One for the Jr. suffix addition, and one for the incorrectly assigned bankruptcy. I have printed out anything from the court records that shows my fathers SSN and his name on the same page because I cannot trust Equifax to do any investigation of their own. I will be sending these packages by certified mail this time, and not fax.
If anyone has any advice or guidance, please let me know. I'm 25 years old with a great job and I cannot buy a car, I cannot buy a house, I cannot buy a ring, I don't qualify for ANY credit cards or loans. My entire future is on hold because Equifax refuses to fix their mistake. Here's the kicker, Experian and TransUnion both have all of my information recorded correctly! Its just Equifax, the turds that exposed almost every American's identity in 2017.
EDIT: Update** Thank you everyone for your amazing advice, personal stories, and informative explanations of what's happening to me and the processes to fix it. I will be filing complaints with the FTC and CFPB immediately. The reddit community is truly amazing! I will keep everyone updated with the status of my situation as it moves forward. Again, thank you to everyone who upvoted and commented, it really means a lot to me.
Submitted February 04, 2019 at 01:53PM by joecrowfosho http://bit.ly/2G8B1rP
